


Dancing In The Past

by LightningStarborne



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Dancing, F/M, Fluff and Angst, GFY, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-15
Updated: 2014-10-15
Packaged: 2018-02-21 07:35:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2460164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightningStarborne/pseuds/LightningStarborne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skulduggery finds himself in the past with Valkyrie. When they go to a ball to try and have some fun before they go back to the future. At the ball they find none other than Skulduggery's dead wife. Valkyrie tells him to go dance with her one last time.<br/>Lilya Artemis is originally purplejabberwocky's.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dancing In The Past

**Author's Note:**

  * For [purplejabberwocky](https://archiveofourown.org/users/purplejabberwocky/gifts), [AmaraqWolf](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmaraqWolf/gifts).



> This is for purplejabberwocky, who inspired me to write this fandom.

As Valkyrie and Skulduggery walked through the crowd, her in a brilliant black dress, him in a suit with his facade on, she questioned him about the various people around them. There was one man who apparently had an affair with one of the other men in the room. There was a woman who had recently lost a lot of weight and was really proud of it.

"Well, is there anyone who is going to be here who either of us know?" Valkyrie asked him.

"There is going be a woman who I know arriving soon. I am also going to be here." Skulduggery replied, eyes scanning the room intently.

"Awesome! Can I talk to you when you arrive? I've always wanted to know what you were like when you were alive."

"I suppose. Just don't mention the fact that he is going to become a skeleton. That would be difficult to explain." Skulduggery kept looking around, and Valkyrie sighed.

"Okay, I'll bite. Who ot what are you looking for?"

"Miss Lilya Artemis." Skulduggery's voice was sad.

"And why are you looking for her so desperately?" Valkyrie raised an eyebrow.

"She is dead in our time. She was my wife." Skulduggery closed his fake eyes. "I miss her."

"Why don't you dance with her when she arrives? Talk to her a bit, use a different accent or something." Valkyrie suggested. "I'll dance with past you. Should be fun."

Skulduggery laughed. "I wasn't able to dance a few hundred years ago. He'll be stepping on your toes constantly."

Valkyrie waved a hand. "Irrelevant. I've always wanted to know what you were like when you were alive, and this is the perfect opportunity to find out."

Skulduggery looked like he was about to reply, when he looked over her shoulder at something, and became very still.

 

When Lilya Artemis walked into the ball room, she almost walked back out. Over near the refreshments table, Skulduggery Pleasant was picking through the drinks, tasting some, ignoring others completely.

Instead of leaving, she opted to avoid him. She was not going to let him ruin her evening.

She was talking with a young woman when a man walked up.

"You are so beautiful. Please allow me the pleasure of a single dance." The man's voice was as smooth as Skulduggery Pleasant's, but the man's accent was British, and he was much more polite.

She looked at him warily for a moment before accepting his extended hand. "Thank you mister...?"

The man just smiled at her as he led her onto the dance floor. He was handsome, with deep blue eyes and bright red hair.

He was an excellent dancer, his movements precise, and flowing. He spun her around the floor with confidence she had seen in few men that deserved their arrogance.

"So Mister No Name. Why did you ask me to dance?" Lilya finally devised to ask. Most men wanted to court her for her looks, and were unaware if her age.

"You are beautiful. You look like my dead wife, and all I can think is, if I can't have one last dance with her, I may as well treat others to to it." The man's voice and smile were wistful, like he was lost in memories of this dead wife of his. "She was beautiful and brilliant. She wasn't afraid to tell me when I was being rude. I remember when I first started courting her, and I didn't really noticed how much I annoyed her until a friend of mine told me." The man smiled at her. "I would give you advice on love, but since I can't really tell you something you haven't already been told, I wish you the best of luck in life." The man stepped back and released her. "Now I need to see how my best friend's conversation with Skulduggery Pleasant is going. She is a very interesting girl, who has always been curious about my life before she met me. I think she would interest Mister Pleasant. Good Evening, Miss Artemis." He walked away.

Lilya wondered how he knew her name.

 

Valkyrie was enjoying talking to the charismatic, handsome young man Skulduggery had been. He was as handsome as Skulduggery had always implied, with brown hair, twinkling green eyes and a roguish grin.

"You actually met your best friend on a pirate ship? And then got stabbed in the arse?" Valkyrie really needed to tease Skulduggery about this.

"Yes. He was transporting some goods, and I needed to get to Ireland. I was pretending to be an English dock hand. Everyone was shocked to learn I was Irish." Skulduggery gave her a quick smile. "We managed to convince the pirate captain that we were demons."

Valkyrie laughed, just as her best friend walked up. She smiled at him as he approached. "He's just telling me about how he met his best friend on a pirate ship." He rolled his eyes.

"Of course." His voice was British, which she found slightly unsettling. "It's time to go. We can't be late. But first I want you to meet Miss Artemis." She grinned, waved goodbye to the young, living version of her best friend, and walked towards her skeleton friend's dead wife.

 

She wasn't expecting to see the man again, but here he was, standing in front of her, next to a dark haired woman.

"Hello again, Miss Artemis. This is my best friend, Valkyrie." It surprised her that the man would give this young woman's name away sooner than his own.

"Hello, Valkyrie. I'm Lilya. I still don't know your friend's name." 

"He's... odd. He isn't going to tell you, and he asked me not to." Valkyrie smiled apologetically. "Sorry, Lilya."

The man smiled. "I knew you two would get along. I'm just worried you're going to get along too well. If only I could introduce you to Mistress Aoife. She's Ghastly's mother. Lovely woman."

"I'm glad to have met you Lilya, but we must be leaving." Valkyrie smiled and looped her arm through the man's. "Come along, dead man. You must tell me about how you met Mistress Aoife."

They walked off, the man's smooth voice soothing and gentle. 

Lilya then started walking towards the crowd, groaning in resignation when she saw Skulduggery Pleasant walking towards her.


End file.
